Trump's Trials - Trump's use of National Guard in L.A. ruled illegal

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration's use of the National Guard in Los Angeles was illegal. Meanwhile, the president maintained his intention to send troops to Chicago. Laura Fitzgerald reports. Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and this is Trump's terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things. Nobody ever thought was even possible. President Trump has brought back string to the White House. We can't just ignore the president's desires. This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode, we bring you one of NPR's latest stories about the 47th president, and now he is trying to remake the federal government.

Today's story starts right after this. I'm Stevens Geep. The president says he will deploy the National Guard in Chicago and Baltimore, although he did not say when. He said that even as a judge ruled, the president's use of National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles was illegal. Cap Radio's Laura Fitzgerald reports. Around 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines were on the ground in Los Angeles at the height of the deployment in June. Just around 300 troops are still there. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled their deployment violated the Posse Comitatis Act, which prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement without permission from Congress. The ruling said that by setting up security parameters and traffic blockades to aid federal immigration officers, the Guard was illegally conducting law enforcement. But the ruling just applies in California. Jessica Levinson is a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

This ruling doesn't say you can never federalize the National Guard. This ruling says that once the National Guard was on the ground, that basically they did too much. They overstepped their authority. The ruling's a win for California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who in a statement said, no president is a king, not even Trump. Trump sent the guard into Los Angeles to confront protesters against ice raids, and he said to restore order, an argument the judge rejected. Trump claimed the city wouldn't be able to host. the 2028 Olympics if the guard hadn't intervened. In comments Tuesday, Trump also named other cities led by Democrats, where he says he'll send the guard. His deployment of troops in Washington, D.C.

has gone on for three weeks. I'm very proud of Washington. It serves as a template, and we're going to do it elsewhere. He said he will send troops to Chicago, where he says crime is out of control. We're going in. I didn't say when. We're going in. When you lose, look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. Illinois's Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker said it is about politics. At a press conference, he said the people of Chicago don't want troops on the streets, but predicted the city would soon see federal immigration raids designed to ignite protests. We know before anything has happened here that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago. Pritzker said Trump is looking for a way to declare an emergency in Chicago, but that the city's

problems can be handled by local police. For NPR News, I'm Laura Fitzgerald in Berkeley, California. And before we wrap up, a thank you to our NPR Plus supporters who hear each show without sponsored messages and, of course, who help protect independent journalism. If you are not a supporter yet, you can visit plus.npr.org to find out how you can get a ton of podcast perks across dozens of NPR shows, like bonus episodes, exclusive merchandise, and more. Again, that's plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.